Addis Ababa, July 06, 2021 (Walta) – Egypt’s irrigation Minister said on Monday he had received official notice from Ethiopia that it had begun filling the reservoir behind its giant hydropower dam, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), for a second year.
Egypt has informed Ethiopia of its categorical rejection of the measure, Irrigation Minister Mohamed Abdel Aty said in a statement. On the other hand, Ethiopia says the dam on the Blue Nile is crucial to its economic development and providing power to its population.
The volume of the accumulating water would depend on the amount of seasonal rain that fell in Ethiopia, Egyptian Irrigation Ministry spokesman Mohamed Ghanim told a local TV channel.
“We won’t see any effect now on the Nile. We have a month or a month and a half ahead of us,” he said.
The U.N. Security Council is expected to discuss the issue on Thursday, and Abdel Aty had written to the council to inform it of the latest developments, the statement said.
Ethiopia says it is finally exercising its rights over Nile waters long controlled by its downstream neighbors.
Ethiopian Ambassador to Khartoum said on Sunday that Egypt and Sudan already knew the details of the first three years of the dam’s filling and that the issue should not be brought before the Security Council as it was not a matter of peace and security.
As soon as we receive detailed information from the Ethiopian side, we will update you.